Category Archives: Law

As went Maine Yankee, so goes San Onofre: another reactor will close


San Onofre 4 will stay down,
if opponents can stop the hidden experiment shell game.
Maine Yankee was down for about a year, and never started up again.

Front page of the Bangor Daily News 28 May 1997,

Maine Yankee plant may be closed down: Owners weigh repair costs, deregulation,


Page 1A Bangor Daily News 28 May 1997

Maine Yankee President Mike Sellman said that spending
will be reduced by about 20 percent, or $41 million, from
June through December.

“I think every plant that I’m aware of that has made the decision
to essentially curtail start-up activities has then gone ahead
shut down permanently,” said Sellman.

Maine Yankee has been off line since Dec. 6, 1966.
Several repair and improvement projects had been planned so the plant’s
operators could seek Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to
restart and return the plant to service.

See also
“It has to close because of the pocketbook.” —Kyle Jones on Maine Yankee nuclear power plant.

-jsq

“It has to close because of the pocketbook.” —Kyle Jones on Maine Yankee nuclear power plant

Instead of demonstrating to influence legislators, sometimes it's better
to get elected and legislate: that's what Kyle Jones did in Maine,
and he closed the Maine Yankee nuke,
de-monopolized the state's electrical utilities,
and instituted a 30% renewable energy goal.
All this was helped by the nuclear industry's own incompetence.

Bangor Daily News, Page A2, 28 May 1997,

Maine Yankee plant may be closed down: Owners weigh repair costs, deregulation,


Page 2A Bangor Daily News 28 May 1997
Cracking in the plant's steam generator tubes, which carry the superheated,
radioactive water, was first discovered in 1990.
In 1994, Main Yankee officials predicted that the plant's problems
were over after they plugged more than 300 of the cracked tubes.
However, testing of the tubes during a shutdown for refueling in 1995
revealed as many as 10,000 additional cracked tubes.

Sounds a lot like

San Onofre.

At the time, it was estimated that permanently shutting down
the plant would cost at least $316 million while,
after 23 years of operation, Maine Yankee had collected only
$100 million to pay for its decommissioning. The most recent
estimate for decommissioning is $369 million, of which
only $169 million has been raised as of this month.

Facing the accumulation of these engineering and operational difficulties,
the owners of the plant signaled a departure from business-as-usual
and, earlier this year, brought in the New Orleans-based Entergy Corp.
to provide management services at Maine Yankee.

Oh, my!
The same Entergy that's now

likely to close Vermont Yankee.
And Vermont Yankee wasn’t the first to follow this financial path to closure:

Continue reading →

Vermont Yankee may be next nuke to close



UBS predicts Entergy will close its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant soon:
that’s the same Entergythat couldn’t keep the power on during the SuperBowl
and that

can’t keep Pilgrim 1 nuclear reactor up in Massachusetts during a winter storm
(down 3 days now, for the third downtime in a month).
A few days later, UBS
set Entergy up on a quarterly earnings call to mention that
Vermont Yankee had already been taken off the New England energy
capacity auction, which would make it easy to replace.

San Onofre still down in California,

Dominion Power closing Kewaunee in Wisconsin,

NRC terminated Calvert Cliffs in Maryland,

Duke closing Crystal River in Florida,
and maybe Vermont Yankee next?
How about

we pass HB 267 to stop Georgia Power charging for cost overruns
for Vogtle 3 and 4 and see how long before Southern Company stops that project?

Andrew Stein wrote for vtdigger 6 February 2013 (updated 7 Feb),

In report, financial firm forecasts that Entergy may close Vermont Yankee,

In an investment research letter, the Swiss financial services
company UBS Securities anticipates Entergy Corp. will retire one of
its nuclear power plants in 2013, and it cites “Vermont Yankee
as the most tenuously positioned plant.”



UBS representatives met with Entergy’s new leadership team on Feb.
1, the same day Leo Denault became CEO and chair of the board for
the Louisiana-based company that operates the Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant.

And that’s how a clean-broom new CEO often signals his intentions:
by bringing in outside experts to provide him cover for what he
already intends to do anyway.
And this new-broom CEO

is Entergy’s former Chief Financial Officer
who as CFO has repeated fiddled with Vermont Yankee to try to
make it less unprofitable.
What did those experts say?

Continue reading →

Ways to fix the trash problem

I commend Commissioner John Page for
his op-ed in the VDT today,


attempting to do what no other Commissioner has tried:
to explain the trash issue.
Indeed, like him, most of the people I talked
to while campaigning for Gretchen were for keeping
the waste collection centers open, and of those
the vast majority were willing to pay more,
which is the main reason the previous Commission
made a big mistake in closing those centers.
Unfortunately his letter seems to indicate nothing can be done.
Well, here are some things that can be done.

Let the contract lapse.

Commissioner Joyce Evans insisted on the contract
with the sole provider being only for one year.
Let it lapse after that year!

Publish the contract.

What’s in the contract?
How do we even know it’s for only one year?
The new Commission already had to

do over a decision of the previous Commission
(remove license fee from Sunday alcohol sales)
because the ordinance written up afterwards wasn’t what
they thought they passed.
Publish the contract and let everyone see!

Publish an accounting for the waste collection sites.

Commissioner Page wrote:

The county was losing hundreds of thousands
of dollars each year because the fees for the permits
were not bringing in enough money to fully fund
the sites.

How do we know that?

Continue reading →

A bill for renewal of a fee on hospitals to pay for Medicaid



The Georgia legislature showed some responsibility for public health Friday,
even though it did so through a shell game.

Gretchen noted that
Aaron Gould Sheinin and Misty Williams wrote for the AJC Friday,

‘Bed tax’ clears final hurdle,

The state’s ailing Medicaid program benefited from critical care
Friday, when the House overwhelmingly approved a bill that will make
way for renewal of a fee on hospitals.

Senate Bill 24 will transfer the power to levy the fee — seen
as necessary to avoid a loss of $700 million in funding for the
medical care program that serves low-income Georgians — from
the Legislature to the state’s community health care agency.

Continue reading →

Why must the small business owner be discarded? —Deep South Sanitation

Cary Scarborough, owner of a local sanitation business, previously

asked the Commission not to grant a monopoly on waste collection.
He was quoted in

today’s VDT article,
and he has elaborated on his company’s facebook page.

To the Commission,

13 November 2012:



Don’t do this to private enterprise, to an individual. If it’s done
to me, it will get easier later down the road to do it to someone
else.

In

the VDT:

“I have not been told by the County that what I’m doing is
illegal,” Scarborough said. “But I realize they’ve drawn
up an ordinance, and they’re probably going to say that it’s
illegal. If they come after me, I guess they have to come after
me.”

Scarborough believes that if the citizens aren’t required to
contract with Advanced Disposal, they are then allowed to choose.

“If the citizens can choose, why can’t they choose me?”
he said.

On Deep South Sanitation’s

public facebook page:

“REGARDING THE ISSUE OF THE TRASH ORDINANCE IN LOWNDES COUNTY”

Continue reading →

No choice on trash —”representatives from Lowndes County”



The VDT went deep under the Lowndes County government’s anonymous cover
for an interview with “representatives” who
confirmed that unincorporated residents have no choice
for trash collection other than

the monopoly the Commission granted
to a company from New York City.

Jason Schaefer wrote on the front page of the VDT today,

County trash ordinance goes into effect Friday:
VDT has Q&A with county leadership about new law, burning,

VDT:
Lowndes County has said residents aren’t required to sign a
service contract with Advanced Disposal. What other services are
there in the area, and do they include Deep South Sanitation in
Valdosta?

LC:
“According to the solid waste ordinance, Advanced Disposal
will be the only residential hauler licensed to serve unincorporated
Lowndes County. There’s been some confusion about trash collection
service in the city. This ordinance is just for unincorporated
Lowndes County, not for any of the cities.”

Maybe these were the same “representatives” who sent

an unsigned letter
saying there were 5,000 residents of unincorporated parts of
Lowndes County who didn’t already have curbside service, and they
have one choice now: the one-and-only
county-appointed purveyor of waste bins.
What could possibly go wrong?

Continue reading →

Get a job —Lowndes County to waste site workers

Continuing to ignore its responsibilities to protect public health, safety,
and well-being,
the Lowndes County government proceeded with its plan
to trash rural residents’ waste collection sites,
and told part time workers there to get a job.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

Trash centers dumped:
Final week to make trips to county recycling centers,

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners near the end of 2012 voted


to approve a contract with Advanced Disposal to serve as the sole
waste company to conduct curbside trash pick-up in unincorporated
Lowndes County. Some citizens remain critical of the change in
service, which will cost $12.80 per month, and many are trying to
get their last loads to the collection/recycling centers before they
close….



Full-time employees at the recycling stations, which are already
employees of Public Works, said County Clerk Paige Dukes, will be
moved to different positions within the department. Part-time
employees will need to find new jobs.

Why might citizens be critical?

Continue reading →

I-75 as the Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway?

Did you know the legislature is likely to rename much of Interstate 75
through Lowndes County in honor of a former governor,
and spend $4,500 for signs to do so?

The Valdosta Daily Times, Lowndes County


NOTICE OF ROAD FACILITY DEDICATION



Notice is given that there will be introduced at the regular 2013
session of the General Assembly of Georgia a resolution sponsored by
Senator Tim Golden, 121 State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia 30334, (404)
656-7580, to dedicate the portion of Interstate 75 in Lowndes County
from the West Hill Avenue exit to the North Valdosta Road exit as
the Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway in honor of his
achievements, accomplishments, and contributions to Lowndes County
and to the State of Georgia; and for other purposes. The estimated
cost of such dedication is $4,500.00.

00046038

1/19/13

And such a bill has been introduced in the Georgia House (not the Senate) as

HR 47, Governor Melvin Ernest Thompson Memorial Highway; Lowndes County; dedicate,
sponsored by
(1) Shaw, Jason 176th, (2) Carter, Amy 175th, (3) Black, Ellis 174th,
(4) Sharper, Dexter 177th, (5) Houston, Penny 170th.

Here's the part that ties Gov. Thompson to here:

WHEREAS, Governor Thompson was instrumental in the success of the City of


Valdosta and Lowndes County, where his leadership as a founding member of
the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority spearheaded much of the
urban development and planning for Valdosta and the surrounding areas,
including the Azalea City Industrial Park; and

And establishing Industrial Parks was a cutting-edge idea: in the 1950s.

The bill adds:

Continue reading →

GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act




Georgia Senator Buddy Carter has introduced a Senate bill for the current
session of the legislature,

SB 51,
“The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act of 2001”.
It attempts to fix
Georgia’s special solar financing problem,
the antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.

Why 2001?
Apparently Buddy Carter has been introducing it every year since then.
Last year

Georgia Power’s disinformation campaign
nuked it when it was

SB 401.
Has the legislature gotten tired of Georgia Power and its parent the Southern
Company being
way late and overbudget on those new nukes?
Does the legislature want Georgia citizens to get the savings and job
benefits of

the fastest growing energy source in the country?
Will
GaSU help with SB 51, or only with GaSU’s attempt to become a solar
monopoly utility?
You can contact your legislators and tell them what you think.
Every one of them who

voted for Georgia Power’s stealth-tax rate hike for that nuke boondoggle
should vote for SB 51 to start getting Georgia on a clean path to jobs
and energy independence.

This bill is not perfect:
it counts

“generator fueled by biomass”
as

Continue reading →